WE ARE THE FLESH

Directed by Emiliano Rocha Minter

Starring: Noé Hernández, María Evoli, Diego Gamaliel

Arrow UK Blu-ray/DVD Release: Feb 13th 2017.

"The most disturbing horror debut since Hellraiser." - SFX

"Truly nightmarish and hypnotic." - SciFiNow

"We Are the Flesh is a very personal, very powerful film that deeply impressed me." - Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu (Director of THE REVENANT (2015), BIRDMAN (2014), BIUTIFUL (2010) and AMORES PERROS (2000)).

A visionary and bizarre slice of Mexican art house cinema, WE ARE THE FLESH is an
extraordinary and unsettling film experience, a sexually charged and nightmarish
journey into an otherworldy dimension of carnal desire and excess, as well as a
powerful allegory on the corrupting power of human desire.

Acclaimed by the Oscar-winning Mexican directors of THE REVENANT and GRAVITY,
and playing to rave reviews and stunned audiences at genre film festivals around the world WE ARE THE FLESH is that rare beast – an
intelligent, beautifully-crafted art house film that is also provocative and deeply disturbing.
Mixing the graphic, powerful imagery of Gaspar Noé’s LOVE and ENTER THE VOID with the surreal, hallucinatory impact of Alejandro
Jodorowsky, and taking Mexican arthouse cannibal flick WE ARE WHAT WE ARE to the next level, WE ARE THE FLESH is a bizarre,
psychedelic head trip, mixing intense, outrageously explicit imagery with a profound allegory on the nature of existence, to make this
is an unforgettable, boundary-pushing experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Initially, the film appears to be set in a post-apocalypse scenario. Mariano, a strange hermit, lives in what seems to be a large,
dilapidated cellar where he fills oil-drums full of sludge, which he then distills into some powerful solution capable of combustion,
and curing medical ailments. He also has a musical drum which he beats like a lunatic whilst screaming at the top of his voice.
He regularly takes delivery of large trays of eggs, or steak through a slot in one of the walls, but doesn’t seem to eat –
the magical liquid providing his only sustenance.

Two teenage urchins; brother and sister Lucio and Fauna appear seeking food and shelter. Mariano gives them bowls of eggs,
and in return they work for him. Apart from his distilling project, Mariano wants to build a large cave. They do this by constructing a
large frame from broken furniture, packing-tape and egg boxes – then lining the structure with cardboard.

During a break from the building work, Mariano coerces Fauna and Lucio into having sex with each other.
Explicit sex scenes follow whilst Mariano engages in a lethal masturbation session.

This is just the first 30 minutes! From here, things start to get strange. Fauna and Lucio,
trapped in this maddening womb-like world under Mariano’s malign influence, find themselves sinking into the realms of dark and forbidden behaviour.

Whilst I was watching this, I was constantly reminded of the work of Jodorowsky and to some extent, the nightmarish visions of COFFIN JOE.
A video essay on the DVD refers to Jodorowsky and Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, where theatrical elements were designed to be
confrontational and shocking. At one point Mariano states that he is interested in the fluids contained in the body,
and we are assailed by a wide selection of them. You will finish the film with your head spinning - but it will eat away at you, and you'll have to rewatch it.

Visionary, unrelenting, and certainly not for the prudish or faint-hearted, WE ARE THE FLESH is an erotic inferno of the senses that
manages to pack all manner of delirium into its short running time, including incest, necrophilia, and cannibalism. This is extreme art
cinema at its boldest and most taboo-bustingly bizarre.

The film will appeal to fans of Jodorowsky, José Mojica Marins,
the Japanese JIGOKU films and, more recently, BASKIN (Turkey, 2015).